BY FAOLÁN CAHILL
Ireland will take on England tomorrow on the final day of the Senior Men’s and Women’s Home Internationals with everything on the line as both countries’ Men’s and Women’s teams secured their second consecutive wins of the week at Castlerock Golf Club.
Day Two saw England face Scotland before hosts Ireland took on Wales, with the women’s matches leading out on a glorious day along the Causeway Coast.
Ireland’s Senior Women’s team finished the morning foursomes all square on one and a half points with their Welsh counterparts, with the highlight a dominant 6&4 win for Alison Taylor (Malahide) and Laura Webb (Royal Portrush).
Fresh off that victory, Webb and Taylor were sent out in the opening singles matches in the afternoon and delivered two more points for Ireland which put the hosts in control. Wins also came for Gail Linter (Belvoir Park) and Deirdre Smith (Co.Louth) before Deirdre Walsh (Milltown) put the shine on Ireland’s win with a 6&5 triumph that saw the Senior Women’s team claim a 6.5-2.5 success.
“They all did their part, they played so well. I was delighted, some really fabulous golf out there” said Ireland Captain Marilyn Henderson (Royal Belfast).
With England’s Senior Women’s team defeating Scotland by the same scoreline, it sets up a winner takes all showdown on Thursday, and Henderson described what it would mean to jump that final hurdle.
“We would be thrilled if we did come out on top tomorrow. Particularly for them (the players), they put such a lot of hard work in over the winter with short game exercises that our Men’s manager had set up for us.
“They’ve been working so hard on their game. Some of them, particularly, don’t play links golf so it’s different sometimes. You use a lot of chip and runs so we were concentrating on a lot of that as we knew we were coming here. So yes, we’d be thrilled to bits”
Meanwhile Ireland’s Senior Men’s team had to work for their win as Wales took the morning foursomes 2-1, with David Mulholland and Alan Condren claiming an important point with a 4&2 success, and in doing so avoiding a clean sweep.
A tough 5&4 loss for Steve Graham in the top singles match put Ireland under pressure but Condren stepped up once again, winning his singles match impressively 6&5.
This inspired his teammates to follow suit, with wins coming for Tony Cleary and David Mulholland, before Karl Bornemann confirmed the overall win for the Irish Senior Men’s team with a closely fought 1UP victory on the last. The singles concluded 4-2 in Ireland’s favour, meaning the Men won out 5-4, with the overall score of the contest seeing Ireland defeat Wales 11.5-6.5.
“It was a really good fightback by the boys, we were down quite a lot of the match but came back and played extremely well” said Men’s Captain Brian Hutchinson (Donaghadee) in the immediate aftermath of the win.
Hutchinson was particularly pleased with how his team bounced back in the singles in the afternoon. “Absolutely delighted, I don’t think we could have done any better. Obviously we were looking for the four games and we got them. Looking forward to tomorrow now”
Just as with the Women’s event, it’s winner takes all for the men against England tomorrow after the English Senior Men’s team defeated Scotland 5-4, in a matchup that saw no less than four tied matches.
England Senior Men’s Captain Andrew Atkinson (Windermere, Cumbria) is fancying his side’s chances in Thursday’s decider. “Ireland’s going to be great. Today was the ‘Old Firm’ rivalry, tomorrow is the Irish which is the one that we always want to beat”.
On what message he would be sending out to his team, Atkinson added: “We’ve proven last year that we beat them twice, once in the Homes and once in the Europeans. It’s going to be really close because you are all great players so you’ve got to be on your mettle. Play your best, you’ll have your ups and downs but ultimately you’re there by right”.
Heading into the final day, Ireland are top of each of the Combined, Men’s, and Women’s standings, with England second, Wales third and Scotland fourth. Wales and Scotland will be first out in tomorrow’s order of play, before Ireland face off against England.